1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains generally to synthesis of mesoporous carbon materials, and more particularly to structures and methods of forming electrically-conductive mesoporous carbon materials using a sacrificial template.
2. Incorporation By Reference
The following publications are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety:
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3. Description of Related Art
In recent years, there has been growing interest in the synthesis of porous carbon materials templated by ordered porous inorganics. In particular, mesostructured carbon materials have been considered for potential application as high surface area adsorbents, catalyst supports, and hydrogen storage materials. Recently, there have been reports published on the syntheses of mesoporous carbons that make use of block-copolymer-directed mesoporous silica materials as templates, due to the thermal and mechanical stabilities of silica, mesostructural ordering of the pore networks, high surface areas, tailorable porosities, and processabilities. As several of the aforementioned applications require mass transport through the carbon material, mesoporous silica templated carbon materials have been synthesized with highly interconnected pore networks, such as the Pm 3 m, Im 3 m, and Ia 3 d structures. While mesoporous carbons with these structures have been reported in powder and fiber morphologies, mesoporous carbon materials have not previously been synthesized into technologically relevant film or monolith morphologies with interconnected pores, and particularly highly interconnected pores, nor with electrical conduction properties. Electrically conductive carbon films and monoliths with interconnected pores have potential for new applications as high surface area electrodes, capacitors, and electrocatalysts.
Previous efforts to synthesize porous carbon films have produced mesostructured carbon films containing 2D hexagonal ordering, with pores that are not generally interconnected and that have not been demonstrated to be electrically conductive. Some researchers have used polystyrene-block-poly(4-vinylpyridine) mesostructured thin film into which an organic precursor resorcinol was imbibed. After polymerization of the resorcinol monomers and carbonization of the film, a well-ordered mesoporous carbon film was obtained. However, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy found no sign of graphitic pore walls, suggestive of non-conductive, amorphous carbon walls. More recently, some researchers were able to directly self-assemble a mesostructured carbon film by spin-coating a resorcinol/Pluronic F127® triblock-copolymer solution onto a silicon substrate. The resulting film was carbonized in an inert atmosphere or in vacuo at temperatures up to 800° C. Again, while this method produced well-ordered hexagonally mesostructured carbon films, the relatively low carbonization temperatures required are expected to yield films with poor electrical conductivity (if any).